January 1980

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This was a real solid match. Both guys worked hard. I enjoyed the limb work. Boyd's forearms were really nasty. The match had a lot of energy to it. I liked how Boyd would disguise his cheating. I hated Kozak just using the chair in front of the ref. A real fun 2nd match on the card. 2 1/2*

The match goes off air w/o a finish. It was cool to see them pre WCCW feud. I loved seeing Gino as a blond. He really feels like a top 10 worker in the U.S at the time. I loved the opening sequence. It got a huge response. We see glimpses of Kevin's mat work that is really underrated. A real fun snap shot on where they'll be headed.

This was solid match. I liked Brooks using elbows and knees. I enjoyed the narrative of Marcus working the arm. They ended up going in a different direction. Brooks is a guy who worked all over Texas. He was never a great worker in the ring, but a great worker when it came to character work and gimmick.

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I received my DVDVR "Best of the 1980s Portland" discs from Will. This is disc 1, match 1. (I hope it's alright I'm posting about it here. This will have "match spoilers".) The announcers are cooing over the NWA belt. Rick Martel is given a glorious shine by Harley Race. If you like arm bars, this the match for ya. Referee's Sandy Barr's red outfit seems straight out of a 1970's JC Penny's catalog. There's a great spot where Race goes for a gutwretch suplex and Martel reverses it. Later Martel catches Race on the top rope and flings him "12... 15 feet across the ring" (according to the announcers). They explain the arm-bar obsession on commentary:…

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Really weird match that I’m not sure I liked or not. First portion was on the mat ang Joe was smothering showing how restrictive Cage is but beyond aesthetics, the work was dull and the crowd is mute almost the entire match. Once Hara starts getting rammed into the cage, the action picked up. Joe in particular takes some nasty shots full on during Haras comeback. Both guys juice and this is worked last man standing style of a ten count needing to be done for the win. A unique take on a cage match if nothing else and I could see some others really liking it. **1/2

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